Utah Valley Family Adventures: Clark Planetarium

My boys love space! The 6 year-old has been reading books about the planets this week, and the 3 year-old drags around a book about the moon. So, we decided to take them to the Clark Planetarium. It is at the Gateway Shopping Center in Salt Lake. It is FREE--our favorite kind of adventure. They do have light shows and movies that have entry fees, but you can walk around the exhibits without paying a thing. Yes, it is geared for older children who can read and do different little experiments, but my boys, ages 4 and 1, had a great time. They loved watching the Foucault pendulum, seeing how much they weighed on other planets, and their favorite--walking on the moon and Mars. There is an audio-kinetic sculpture (Newton's Dream is its name) that is on both stories of the planetarium where different sized balls move through different mazes. We spent a lot of time watching this sculpture. There are also levers that the kids can turn to change the different mazes. We spent about an hour walking through the planetarium, and when we were done, my husband said, "I wish we lived closer. I would be here twice a week." I think that means that this adventure was a success.

The website for the Clark Planetarium had lots of great information. It tells about all the free exhibits, has previews of the movies, and all the important general information like hours and location.

http://www.clarkplanetarium.org

Here are a few pictures from our day at the planetarium.